SYRIA

In a new video, ISIS shows American-made weapons it says were intended for the Kurds but actually were air dropped into territory they control.

At least one bundle of U.S. weapons airdropped in Syria appears to have fallen into the hands of ISIS, a dangerous misfire in the American mission to speed aid to Kurdish forces making their stand in Kobani.

In what is more proof that the NATO operation against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is merely Libya 2.0, the Obama administration is now stating that it is open to the possibility of establishing a “no-fly zone” over Syria.

Lower oil prices, reflected in falling petrol prices at the pump, have been a boon for Western consumers. Are they also a potent US weapon against Russia and Iran?

That’s the conclusion drawn by New York Times columnist Thomas L Friedman, who says the US and Saudi Arabia, whether by accident or design, could be pumping Russia and Iran to brink of economic collapse.

Despite turmoil in many of the world’s oil-producing countries – Libya, Iraq, Nigeria and Syria – prices are hitting lows not seen in years, Friedman writes.

Analysts identify a number of possible reasons for the steep drop – increased US production, slowing economies in Europe and China and steady production from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).

Rather than look at the causes, however, Friedman says to look at the result – budget shortfalls in Russia and Iran – and what it means.

An American journalist has been killed in a car crash in Turkey just days after claiming she claimed the Turkish intelligence services had threatened her over her reporting of the siege of Kobane.

Serena Shim, who worked for Iran's state-owned Press TV as Turkey correspondent, died in the city of Suruc after the car in which she was travelling reportedly collided with a 'heavy vehicle'.

Shim's death came just days after she spoke on camera of her fears of being arrested, claiming Turkish intelligence agents had accused her of spying after one of her reports suggested ISIS militants were being smuggled back and forth over the Syrian border in the back of aid vehicles.

Russia is supporting the governments of Iraq and Syria with massive supplies of weaponry and military equipment in order to help them fight against extremist groups, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.

Lavrov, speaking at a panel discussion focusing on Russia’s foreign policy, said that with the Russian aid, the Iraqi and Syrian governments' combat capacity has been greatly enhanced.

The Russian minister continued by saying that only the United Nations Security Council has the right to form a coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.

Lavrov said that any plans made outside the Security Council are worrying because "these attempts result in an accumulation of chaos."

He added that the aim of fighting against terror is adversely affected by linking it to geopolitical decisions to punish certain regimes, and thus forcing such a connection is morally indefensible.

While U.S. warplanes strike at the militants of the so-called Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq, truckloads of U.S. and Western aid has been flowing into territory controlled by the jihadists, assisting them to build their terror-inspiring “Caliphate.”

Webmaster's Commentary:

Absoflippinglutely unbelievable.

I am having an industrial strength, palm to forehead moment at velocity, upon reading this.

IF this is true, the US military has truly become "the gang that can't shoot (or airlift) straight.

On Friday, she told Press TV that the Turkish intelligence agency had accused her of spying probably due to some of the stories she has covered about Turkey’s stance on the ISIL terrorists in Kobani and its surroundings, adding that she feared being arrested.

Shim said she was among the few journalists obtaining stories of militants infiltrating into Syria through the Turkish border, adding that she had received images from militants crossing the Turkish border into Syria in World Food Organization and other NGOs’ trucks.

“Mrs. Shim most likely died as a result of her tireless pursuit of truth which is suppressed by media in the West. Mrs. Shim appears to be the victim of a CIA black op, most likely with the cooperation of Turkey who just recently accused her of being a ‘spy’ after she exposed Turkey’s assistance of ISIL,” Martin said.

The visit to Turkey last week of retired Marine Gen. John Allen, the US special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter IS, and Brett McGurk, deputy assistant secretary of state, as reported here, is a case in point. Turkey made no concession to allow reinforcement of Syrian Kurdish rebels battling IS forces in Kobani. US officials had to backtrack, with some awkwardness, on whether Turkey had agreed to the use of the Incirlik air base by the United States for attacks against IS forces; Ankara had not granted permission, at least not yet.

The fiercest fighting in days shook the Syrian border town of Kobani overnight, sources inside the town and a monitoring group said on Sunday, as Islamic State militants attacked Kurdish fighters with mortars and car bombs.

Islamic State, which controls much of Syria and Iraq, fired 44 mortars at Kurdish parts of the town on Saturday, some of which fell inside Turkey, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said four more were fired on Sunday.

Russia has refuted media reports that Washington and Moscow have agreed to share intelligence on Islamic State terrorists. The news reports followed Wednesday talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Warning that Americans are losing faith in their government's ability to stop Ebola, Republican lawmakers on Thursday pressed for a ban on travel to the U.S. from the West African outbreak zone. The White House resisted the idea and tried to tamp down fear as the pool of Americans being monitored expanded.

Speaking to reporters today at the State Department, Gen. John Allen, who has been advising President Obama on his new war against ISIS, today revealed that the administration has no plans to ever coordinate with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) or any other of the existing rebel factions.

That’s a surprise, because officials have been harping on for years about how great these factions are, and have been lavishing them with US arms and funding.

The FSA is forever complaining about not getting enough aid from the US, as their way of explaining how years of rebellion has them with virtually no territory and sloughing off fighters to ISIS and other more successful factions at an alarming rate. Now, the US appears to be comfortable just cutting them loose.

Webmaster's Commentary:

This administration is pathologically incapable of looking toward long-term strategies to keep the US safe and prosperous.

Attacking Syria, with any US-led assets, is not something that will make this country more safe and prosperous.

The only reason that the US government wants al-Assad out in Damascus is to pave the way for an invasion of Iran, and create regime change in Tehran.

And NO POLITICAL ENTITY wants this more than the government in Tel Aviv.

Someone needs to be reminded, in the bowels of the halls of power in DC, that not everything that is in Israel's best interests are not at all in We the People's best interest.

Certainly not for those military personnel who will be dispatched to fight, get killed or maimed for life, in this potential military misadventure.

The coming round of talks with Iran, I would be willing to bet, will consist of the US attempting to "run out the clock", as one says in football, then the complete abandonment of any talks after this.

Many Russian military and politicians have stated very bluntly that any attack against Iran will be seen as an attack against Russia's national interests.

IF, in fact, the US attacks Iran, it may be looking at a war against Russia. At this time in our history, the US does not have the money, the troop strength, or the manufacturing to insure a positive outcome to a war against Russia, and that is what makes the military scenario so scarily dangerous.

What’s worse: Launching a disastrous military campaign under false pretenses to achieve goals you wrongly believe are attainable? Or launching a disastrous military campaign you know is doomed in order to help your party win an election?

I ask in light of today’s New York Times story about how President Obama asked the CIA a while back whether arming rebel forces – pretty much the agency’s signature strategy — had ever worked in the past.

He was told that it almost never has.

But then in June, once the political pressure for intervention in Syria got too great, he did just that — sending weapons to rebels fighting the Syrian military.

Senator John McCain has warned that the Islamic State (Isis) is winning in Iraq and Syria, and that the United States needs to deploy ground troops if it is to stave off defeat.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Okay John, if you really feel that way, here's your rifle and here's your parachute. We ran out of the desert camo but here is a bright day-glo orange jumpsuit left over from the CIA's torture centers and we think the cleaners got most of the blood out. Watch your head climbing into that transport plane and we will call Assad and tell him you are on your way to kick his butt all by yourself.

But We The People remember the lies about stolen incubators that tricked us into the first invasion of Iraq.

We The People remember the lies about Saddam's nuclear weapons that tricked us into the second invasion of Iraq.

We The People remember how only a year ago you tried to trick us into war with Syria with more lies about poison gas.

We The People remember how there weren't really torpedoes in the Gulf of Tonkin or a Spanish mine in Havana Harbor, but how there really WERE weapons on board the Lusitania.

In short, We The People remember all the lies, frauds, and deceptions used to trick us into wars of conquest, to send our young people out to die in wars created out of thin air by and for the money-junkies. I think it is time that wee have a new rule in America; that those who want war are the first to the front lines. You are all splendidly brave with the lives of other peoples' children. Let's see the true measure of your courage and commitment to war.

This summer, Islamic State fighters swept into the expanse of desert straddling the Iraq-Syria border. Riding in pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns, supported by skilled snipers and at least one tank, the Islamists captured the town of Rabia on the Syrian side of the border.

Kurdish militia fighters from the People’s Protection Units — known by its Kurdish acronym YGP — rushed to the neighboring town of Al Yarubiyah, on the Iraqi side, in a desperate effort to contain the militants’ advance. What followed was a two-month stalemate, as both sides harassed each other with machine guns, mortars and snipers.

Then in late September, U.S.-led airstrikes hit Islamic State forces in Rabia. The Kurdish YPG troops timed their counterattack perfectly. Reeling from the combined aerial and ground assault, the militants fell back. The Kurds liberated Rabia.

Even though Islamic State militants in Syria have no aircraft to speak of, the US’s top military commander says establishing a no-fly zone may be part of the campaign. Such a move is what US allies, including Turkey, have been pressing for.

Webmaster's Commentary:

... and a confirmation that this war in Syria is against Assad and ISIS was the hoax used to sell it to you.

We first exposed the "secret" US-Saudi deal in September which led to the inevitable bombing of Syria. We then progressed to explain the quid pro quo of the deal in lower oil prices (benefiting US consumers into an election and crushing Russian revenues). In today's Wall Street Journal we get the final piece of the puzzle as it is clear that what Saudi Arabia loses in 'price' it will make up in 'volume' as The Kingdom is taking the unusual step of asking buyers to commit to maximum shipments if they want to get its crude. Simply put, "they are threatening [European] buyers" to discontinue sales if they don't agree with the full fixed deliveries. The 'oil weapon' grows stronger...

Days after slashing prices in Asia, Saudi Arabia is now making an aggressive push in the European oil market, traders say.

The kingdom is taking the unusual step of asking buyers to commit to maximum shipments if they want to get its crude.

Webmaster's Commentary:

So, the quid pro quo for slashing its prices was that the US was going to accomplish regime change in Damascus, ousting Al-Assad once and for all.

This bothers me tremendously, both morally and legally.

We are bombing a sovereign nation which has done absolutely nothing against the United States; we are destroying its oil infrastructure; its food infrastructure; and its civilian infrastructure (by bombing residential areas).
And why?!?

Ultimately, to force regime change in Teheran, something Tel Aviv and certain elements in DC want to see happen.

The P5+1 meetings regarding Iran's nuclear energy program are just for show, and I would almost bet real money that by the end of next month, there will be neither a viable agreement will be reached, nor a desperately-needed extension of these talks.

And again, members of our American military will fight, be killed outright, or maimed for live; all in the service of private, corporate, profit.

Javani pointed out that Justice and Development Party in Turkey has transformed some Turkish areas into training camps for ISIS members, providing them with weapons, ammunition, logistic coordination and medical services.

It is like old times. Kurdish protestors clashing with Turkish riot police in towns across southeastern Turkey and ultranationalists taking to the streets, too, flashing the symbol of the Grey Wolves, a violent far-right group that was responsible for more than 700 murders in the vicious political violence that engulfed the country in the 1970s.

But the events provoking this madness are absolutely current. Just across the border in Syria, the city of Kobani, once home to more than 50,000 people – most of them Kurds – is about to fall to the forces of the so-called Islamic State, better known as ISIS or ISIL. Kurdish militias – men and women – have held off the savage jihadists for weeks now despite being outnumbered and outgunned. In the last few days U.S. airstrikes have slowed the ISIS advances, but not enough. ISIS has taken more than half the town, including major government buildings.

Turkey’s authorities have allowed the US to use its airbases in the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, said US officials , adding that Washington can also use a key Turkish installation near the Syrian border.

"Details of usage are still being worked out,” the US official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

For nearly three years now, 21WIRE has been reporting on how Washington and London, along with the GCC feudal kings, have been busy plotting, planning, funding and doing destabilization in Syria (view our Syria Archives here). Instead, what the public have is a stead stream of tired lies regarding the real US-UK-Turkey-GCC axis motivations in Syria.

If you truly want to know how ISIS came to infest Syria (or Iraq for that matter) just ask Hillary Clinton about her little project called, ‘Friends of Syria’. Funny how she jumped ship from her Secretary of State position just months before the West nearly declared war against Damascus in September 2013. Under Hillary’s nurturing care, al-Qaeda, al-Nusra and ISIS – were somehow funded, manned, armed and encouraged to run wild through Syria because the Great and the Good thought they’d help to displace the regime of Syria’s maligned leader Bashar al-Assad.

Turkey and other American allies want the U.S. to create a no-fly zone inside Syrian territory. Yet doing that would mean embracing one of two options President Barack Obama long has resisted: cooperating with Syrian President Bashar Assad's government or taking out its air defenses, an action tantamount to war.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told CNN's Christiane Amanpour this week that Turkey was open to putting boots on the ground in Syria, but only if "we can be sure that our border can be protected," to which he later added, "We don't want the regime anymore against our border."

Two weeks ago, we revealed one part of the "Secret Deal" between the US and Saudi Arabia: namely what the US 'brought to the table' as part of its grand alliance strategy in the middle east, which proudly revealed Saudi Arabia to be "aligned" with the US against ISIS, when in reality John Kerry was merely doing Saudi Arabia's will when the WSJ reported that "the process gave the Saudis leverage to extract a fresh U.S. commitment to beef up training for rebels fighting Mr. Assad, whose demise the Saudis still see as a top priority."

The ISIS siege of Kobane continued overnight while cities across Turkey were set ablaze by Kurdish protestors. At least 19 civilians were killed by Turkish riot police who were trying to disperse angry crowds that had gathered to protest the government’s unwillingness to defend the predominantly Kurdish city. According to Hurriyet, “The worst violence was seen in Diyarbak?r during a reported gunfight between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) supporters and Hizbullah, a radical Islamist group whose members are mostly Kurdish and who allegedly aided the state in the torture and killing of Kurdish activists in the 1990s.” (Hurriyet)

The Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) said it took over the spy base on Sunday, following several weeks of fighting against rival groups, including Syrian government soldiers and members of Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria. The FSA said the base, referred to as “Center C” by Russian intelligence, had been under Russian command until it was abandoned at a time and for reasons that remain unknown. In a three-minute video released by the Western-backed rebel group on YouTube, an FSA officer appears to be guiding the cameraman around part of the seized base. He points to several diagrams and captions on the walls, which are both in Arabic and in Russian. At some point in the video, the seal of Syrian intelligence is clearly visible, placed next to the seal of the GRU’s 6th Directorate, the branch of Russian military intelligence that is tasked with collecting signals intelligence (SIGINT).

Webmaster's Commentary:

More Russia bashing, I see.

Such alleged "evidence" could be very easily faked, for the camera.

And even IF such a base existed, Russia and Syria have been militarily cooperative for some time,which is another reason to look at not attacking Syria militarily with ground troops.

Because at some point, Russia will be aggravated enough to stop the US madness in the Middle East, once and for all.

And that will be brutal, because the US military, at this time in its history, does not have the money, the manufacturing, or the troop strength to insure a positive outcome to a conventional military confrontation with Russia.

I cannot tell you when precisely the Russian government will make such a move; I can only tell you that with renewed military hostilities in the region, it is coming.

President Barack Obama is heading to the Pentagon Wednesday afternoon for an update on the battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), and he’s not going to like what he hears. The key Syrian town of Kobani is likely to fall to ISIS fighters in coming days, senior U.S. military officials will tell Obama—and there’s not a whole lot the U.S. and its allies can do to halt the ISIS victory or the expected bloodbath following its collapse.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I would bet a dollar that Obama will come back and say ground forces will be needed in Syria, but I know none of you are dumb enough to bet against me.

In 2011 NATO air strikes against Libya that were carried out under the pretext of the urgent need of protecting civilians from a “violent dictator“, cleared the road to power for radical militants. Three years ago, once Muammar Gaddafi had been brutally murdered in October 2011, these militants took over Libya by filling the vacuum created by foreign intervention. From that moment on the country had been plunged deeper into bloodshed created by the former revolutionaries as they cut each other’s throats in a fight for rich oil-producing regions.

Webmaster's Commentary:

So far, the only thing US military intervention has done in Iraq, Libya, and (soon) Syria, is to make the situation worse.

In a move designed to amaze Americans and awe enemies and allies alike, the United States Military at last eased--gently, ever so gently--the now legendary F-22 wonder jet into 'combat.' The most sophisticated and expensive warplane in US history (which as of last week was still untested in combat) was inserted into a combat scenario that was essentially the military equivalent of taking on a newborn baby kitten: bombing ISIS training camps in Northern and Western Syria.

One by one, Conservative MPs in the House of Commons led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper voted late Tuesday to join the war in Iraq, passing a controversial motion that clears the way for Canadian CF-18s to embark on airstrikes in the Middle East.

After two days of debate, the motion to launch a combat mission against the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) passed 157-134.

Protesters have returned to the streets of London as they rally in solidarity with Syrian Kurds in Kobani, the town Islamic State militants threaten to seize next. Earlier on Monday activists occupied one of the busiest Tube stations.

Hundreds of people march though London carrying banners which read: “Turkey stop supporting ISIS”

Japan is in a triple dip recession. IMF slices Euro zone growth. Unemployed people protest the European central bank. US hiring plummets and the corporate media reports that the holiday retail season looks promising. One third of auto loans are sub-prime. Research study concludes Obamacare will destroy jobs. Walmart will not insure those employees who work less than 30 hours. Many protocols not followed during Ebola treatment, is Ebola a hoax or is there another agenda. Islamic state gives rules to journalist, everything must be approved by them. US clearing the path to clear the northern border of Syria and Turkey for a no fly zone and the ability to attack Assad.

The airstrikes ordered by President Barack Obama have begun to degrade the Islamic State (ISIS), but will not be capable of eradicating the militant group unless Syrian President Bashar Assad is overthrown, say Arizona Sen. John McCain and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Okay, John and Lindsey, if you really feel that way, here are your rifles! Here are your parachutes. We ran out of the desert camo but here are a couple bright day-glo jumpsuits left over from the CIA torture centers. Watch your heads climbing into that transport plane, and we will call Assad and tell him you are on your way to kick his gluteus maximus all by yourself.

But We The People remember how the US Government has been trying to take over Syria using hired mercenaries for the last three years. We The People remember how you lied about Assad gassing his own people to trick us into war, which didn't work because we still remember how you lied about Saddam's nuclear weapons and stolen incubators to trick us into war with Iraq, and we remember how you lied about torpedoes in the Gulf of Tonkin to trick us into war with Vietnam, and how you lied to us about the Lusitania not carrying weapons to trick us into WW1, and how you lied about a Spanish mine in Havana harbor sinking the USS Maine to trick us into war with Spain ... need I go on?

So you will forgive us if we sit this next war for conquest and enrichment out and keep our children safe at home. But feel free to attack Assad all by yourself, and we will watch safely from home, as you in the government have always done when it was our children being killed and crippled in wars ultimately fought for the bankers!

Both videos when viewed are strangely similar. In both, a black-hooded executioner, nicknamed in the British press as “Jihadi John” for his strong London accent (!), supposedly takes a sharp knife to the throat of a kneeling, orange-clad James Foley and Steve Sotloff. Then, curiously, Jihadi John begins ostensibly slashing the throats of each, not once, but six times….not a drop of blood. Both Foley and Sotloff bravely kneel, head upright, no knee-jerk avoidance reaction one would expect. Then, just when the heads should be severed, in each, there is a blackout. Next scene: body on ground, head sitting atop. Professionally staged. Look for yourself.

War is a dirty, unforgiving business. It is not rendered clean by remote deployments and orders executed at a distance from seemingly safe areas. It takes lives, inflicts unspeakable harm, and rarely brings smiles to those who suffer it. But the members of the US-led coalition currently involved in striking Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq would have you think otherwise. They give the impression that clean distances are golden, and air strikes will have their intended “degrading” effect. Therein lies the message about the false salvation of machinery – the technological panacea that rarely does what it is meant to.

As reports surfaced on Monday suggesting the group that calls itself the Islamic State is close to capturing the Syrian town of Kobani, The Guardian revealed that the Pentagon is still far from taking the next steps towards tackling the militants.

Despite American officials warning for weeks now that the group formerly known as ISIS poses a dire risk to the Middle East and the security of the United States and its allies, representatives for the Pentagon acknowledged to the British paper that efforts to organize a trained army to go up against the violent militants have yet to materialize.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has expressed its readiness to defend Turkey as a member state in the face of attacks from the ISIL Takfiri militants.

Speaking at a news conference in Poland’s capital city of Warsaw on Monday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg held the Western military alliance responsible for protecting Turkey’s “integrity” and its borders.

"Turkey should know that NATO will be there if there is any spillover, any attacks on Turkey as a consequence of the violence we see in Syria," Stoltenberg said.

In comments on today’s “60 Minutes” program, FBI Director James Comey warned that the Khorasan group is “serious people, bent of destruction” who plan to attack the US “very, very soon.”

Comey insisted the US had to act as if the Khorasan strike was “coming tomorrow,” but conceded that they don’t know whether they plan to attack “tomorrow or three weeks or three months from now.”

Webmaster's Commentary:

Memo to FBI Director Comey: if there is a "big bang" in this country, it will mean that neither you, the NSA, the CIA, or the FBI, or military intelligence has been able to protect us, and should be collectively SACKED instantly after such an event occurs.

And the US government has another serious problem: few Americans believe ANYTHING this government says anymore, because it has completely paralyzed and crippled its own credibility.

Should there be a crisis inside this country (like a real, exponential outbreak of ebola here), even if the information the government was disseminating was accurate, it would not be believed.

As America’s efforts to “degrade and ultimately destroy” Islamic State militants extend into Syria, Iraq War III has seamlessly morphed into Greater Middle East Battlefield XIV. That is, Syria has become at least the 14th country in the Islamic world that U.S. forces have invaded or occupied or bombed, and in which American soldiers have killed or been killed. And that’s just since 1980.

US-led air strikes in northern Syria have failed to interrupt the advance of Islamic State (Isis) fighters closing in on a key city on the Turkish border, raising questions about the western strategy for defeating the jihadi movement.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"Jihadi, schmahadi; I'm after Assad, same as always!" -- official White Horse Souse

Hundreds of activists rallied against Britain’s involvement in airstrikes against the ISIL in Iraq and Syria on Saturday. Protesters marched through central London holding banners and chanting "Hands off the Middle East, No justice, No peace," and anti-war slogans.

The black Islamic State flag has been raised over a building on the outskirts of a strategic town of Kobani on the Syrian-Kurdish border, according to various sources. However, Kurds defending the border town say that the city has not yet fallen.

For the past several years, the United Nations has served as a platform for Syria’s enemies to air allegations of human rights abuses and even attempts to use such allegations to justify military aggression against Syria itself. Tales of “barrel bombs” being used against civilians, the bombardment of enemy positions at the cost of civilian lives and the destruction of vital infrastructure have all been constructs in the West’s narrative against the Syrian government.

Now that the US is itself bombing Syria, killing Syrians including innocent men, women and children, as well as vital infrastructure local populations depend on for their survival, the UN has grown suddenly quiet.

If there's one thing we should have learned over the past 13 years of war, it's that war is good business for those in the business of war. Unfortunately, while profits for the Pentagon's contractors increase, so does the cost to taxpayers in billions in waste, fraud, and abuse. As America embarks on yet another war in the Middle East, Congress needs to act now to stop this unjustified bonanza for the Pentagon's contractors.

The most recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan offer an ominous example about what can happen when the rush to war is met with sharp spending increases coupled with little to no oversight or fiscal restraint. The Commission on Wartime Contracting -- a bipartisan congressional body -- estimates that there was $30 to $60 billion in waste, fraud and abuse associated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- a total of $12 million per day. Even worse, at least $6 billion is completely missing, never accounted for, gone forever.

One former Obama administration official said the new White House statement raises questions about how the U.S. intends to proceed in the conflict in Syria and Iraq, and under what legal authorities.

Wait, someone actually wondered under what legal authority the Obama administration is killing innocent people? How dare they: don't they know Obama has a Nobel peace prize, so none of his actions are subject to any scrutiny: surely the president himself is his own best moral censor.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I am deeply concerned that these strikes, which are both deeply immoral and illegal in the extreme, are going to a larger regional war which, at some point, will include Russia.

As an American who cares deeply about the future road her country is taking, I cannot support them at all. All people in the world should have the right to peaceful self-determination.

But then again, in the grand scheme of things which originate in Sodom on the Potomac, this may be precisely the plan by those in the bowels of power in DC: a regional war which ultimately leads to war with Russia.

I would very politely like to point out that there is no guarantee of a positive outcome to such a war with Russia, because the US military doesn't have the money, the troop strength, or the manufacturing to insure such an outcome.

That ISIS have been emboldened, or even created, by the West’s insistence on supporting the armed insurgency in Syria over the past three years – pouring money, weapons and training (including even in public relations) into the hands of fighters of all shades – was admitted again and again by MPs from all parties, as was the reality that it was precisely the dysfunctional state bequeathed by the occupation that had allowed ISIS to take root in Iraq. But those very same MPs then almost all went on to explain that would be voting (‘reluctantly’, ‘with a heavy heart’, etc etc etc) for the government’s motion. The implicit argument was that, yes, we have being doing the wrong thing for the past three years (or past eleven years); but now we have a chance to put it right; indeed it is precisely because we helped create the ‘beast’ that we must now help to kill it.

There seems to be no concern in Tel Aviv that one day Jabhat al-Nusra could turn against Israel too. That is somewhat astonishing as both Hizbullah and Hamas started with Israeli support as counterweights to the Palestinian Liberation Organization only to later become the most capable foes of the Israeli occupation forces. One might have thought that Israeli strategists had learned from such foolishness.

But obviously they have not and now their lobby in the United States, here in form of theWashington Institute, supports that dumb policy by calling for further support for the Al-Qaida affiliate:

The risk of empowering an al Qaida affiliate is a small price to pay for Nusra’s contributions on the battlefield, said Jeffrey White, a former senior Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who’s now with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank.

The following six photographs confirm that a favorite “moderate rebel” leader, Abdel Jabbar al-Okaidi, is allied with ISIL.

The first photograph is from Spring 2013 and shows Okaidi with the American who has been the principal coordinator of US policy on Syria. The last two photographs are from a meeting days ago when Congressmen Adam Kinzinger (Rep Illinois) and George Holding (Rep. North Carolina) met with Okaidi and other “moderate rebels” in Turkey.

Other photos show Okaidi with ISIL fighters and being interviewed about his relationship with ISIL. The photographs are from videos identified at bottom.

ISIS is continuing to push its offensive against the Kurdish border town of Ayn al-Arab, and reports on the ground say they’ve been more successful than previously suggested.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, ISIS as seized more than 350 villages in the area in the last 16 days, and displaced at least 300,000 people from Ayn al-Arab and the surrounding area.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I wish some alleged "reporter" in the presidential pool had the gonadal tissue (and ladies, this includes you also!!) to ask President Obama jut how he expects to win what is essentially a land war from the air.

US Vice-President Joe Biden has accused America’s key allies in the Middle East of allowing the rise of the Islamic State (IS), saying they supported extremists with money and weapons in their eagerness to oust the Assad regime in Syria.

Webmaster's Commentary:

In psychiatric circles this is called "projection"; accusing others of the crimes oneself has committed, like a married person who is having an affair accusing their spouse of being the cheater!

The fog of war has been a recurrent theme through time, the confusion and misapprehension that comes amid the clamour and fury of combat. Even in these early days of the war against Isis, the fog appears to be descending fast with no clear strategy in view and a moving gallery of enemies.

Barack Obama admits that his administration underestimated the threat posed by Isis and overestimated the capabilities of the Iraqi military. This is surprising; the rise to dominance of the Islamist group in Syria, and the damage done by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to his country’s forces through sectarian policies had been extensively charted by the media.

The real confusion began when the campaign moved on to Syria, a necessary step. Instead of just attacking Isis, the US also bombed Jabhat al-Nusra, affiliated to al-Qaeda but which had fought against Isis and was loosely allied with the “moderate” rebels whom the West is sponsoring.

Turkish lawmakers voted Thursday to authorize military force against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, joining a growing international coalition against the Islamist militants as they continued to capture territory just south of Turkey's border.

The Turkish Parliament voted 298-98 to not only to let the country's military leave its borders to battle ISIS but to eliminate threats coming from any terrorist organization in Iraq and Syria, starting Saturday.

It is a big shift for Turkey, a NATO member, which until now offered only tacit support to a U.S.-led coalition of about 40 nations going after ISIS in Iraq and Syria in various capacities.

The Obama administration has exempted its current military campaign in Syria and Iraq from strict standards imposed last year aimed at preventing civilian deaths from U.S. drone strikes, Yahoo News reported Tuesday.

Russell Brand, who will join us on Saturday, says: Bombing won't work - it is going to make matters worse. It will lead to ground troops going in. That will make matters worse. These kind of operations always make things worse. These are the real lessons from history.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Does anyone have contact information for Russell Brand? I want to get him on my radio show.

The railroad and tunnel shown in the pictures are located on the Turkish border side to Syria. ISIS terrorists have apparently the permission of Turkish authorities to use their border and conduct attacks on Kurds in Kobane. Eyewitnesses reported that the terrorists had been brought there before by a train.

The United States’ airstrikes in Syria often target militants with “no military value” and actually aim at the country’s infrastructure, says a US Marine Corps veteran.

Alan Sabrosky (Ph.D, University of Michigan) made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Tuesday while commenting on Washington-led coalition airstrikes in Syria that began last week.

“What I can see happening is that the targets they’re selecting are those that have, in many cases, no military value at all to ISIS or any other rebel group but really are intended to break whatever infrastructure the Syrian government will have when the fighting is over,” Sabrosky said.

Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's first Chief of Staff – who also served as Obama's Israeli Mossad handler – famously said: "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

Individuals, groups, whole industries, even nations sometimes take advantage of crises and catastrophes. Big bankers, for example, love war because it forces governments to borrow vast sums of money at compound interest. Arms manufacturers also make huge profits. And the big government always gets bigger during wartime as it confiscates people's wealth and scales back their rights.

Just days after suggesting lawmakers might not debate U.S. military involvement in Syria until next year, House Speaker John Boehner said he'd agree to call Congress back into session to vote if President Barack Obama sends up a resolution asking for the authority.

Boehner told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that if the President wanted a vote, "I'd bring the Congress back" -- never mind that the U.S. has already begun airstrikes inside Syria as part of a coalition.

Boehner hopes the President requests and sends up an authorization for use of military force as soon as possible," his spokesman, Michael Steel, told CNN Monday.

Boehner left a much different impression in an interview published Thursday in The New York Times.

US airstrikes seem to be expanding in scope today in Syria, with four different provinces of the country hit in attacks, including areas where ISIS is virtually non-existent.

President Obama has been insisting it is an oversimplification to say this war is America versus ISIS. Indeed, that’s the case, but while the president is seeking to downplay the scope of the conflict, the signs are that he’s at war with actually a much broader swath of the Syrian rebellion.

Webmaster's Commentary:

It is obvious to even a casual observer of the current geopolitical scene that these bombings of Syria are engineered to generate regime change in Damascus.

The questions which need to be asked are, will Al-Assad attempt invoke the mutual defense pact Syria has with Iran, to assist him against the US, and if that happens, what will Russia do to prevent any attacks against Iran, and stop the US from bombing Syria?

Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem, delivered a speech on Monday at the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly, in which he affirmed that Syria supports any international effort to combat terrorism as long as it fully preserves civilians’ lives and national sovereignty and is carried out according to international accords.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Meaning NOT bombing the economic and food infrastructure of the nation the US is trying to "save."

President Barack Obama denigrated the United States’ intelligence community in an interview broadcast Sunday evening for giving him and his White House an incorrect assessment of the capabilities of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), during his interview with newsman Steve Kroft, who has been accused of being an "Obama water carrier" by conservative viewers. Obama told Croft on the CBS TV Network's Sunday night edition of 60 Minutes that his "head of the intelligence community, James (Jim) Clapper... underestimated what had been taking place in Syria.”

Webmaster's Commentary:

I think the whole "we underestimated ISIS" is a ploy to sell the American people boots on the ground despite the early assurances this would not happen. Now Obama needs someone to drop the blame on.

What Obama is saying is that he made a mistake when he said he could defeat ISIS from the air (which we knew was total bovine excrement when he said it) and now wants to send your kids into Syria to be killed and crippled fixing that "mistake."

In what is more proof that the NATO operation against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is merely Libya 2.0, the Obama administration is now stating that it is open to the possibility of establishing a “no-fly zone” over Syria.

America’s airstrikes inside Syria against both the Islamic State, often known as ISIL, and Al Qaeda’s primary affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, come with some obvious benefits — taking on a genuine threat to U.S. interests and security — but may also expose the United States to some unintended consequences — dangers that could haunt the United States for years to come.

House Speaker John Boehner says the United States may have "no choice" but to send American troops to fight ISIS militants if the current U.S. strategy fails to extinguish the extremist group.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Okay John, if you really feel that way, here's your rifle and here's your parachute. We ran out of the desert camo but here is a bright day-glo orange jumpsuit left over from the CIA's torture centers and we think the cleaners got most of the blood out. Watch your head climbing into that transport plane and we will call Assad and tell him you are on your way to kick his butt all by yourself.

But We The People remember the lies about stolen incubators that tricked us into the first invasion of Iraq.

We The People remember the lies about Saddam's nuclear weapons that tricked us into the second invasion of Iraq.

We The People remember how only a year ago you tried to trick us into war with Syria with more lies about poison gas.

We The People remember how there weren't really torpedoes in the Gulf of Tonkin or a Spanish mine in Havane Harbor, but how there really WERE weapons on board the Lusitania.

In short, We The People remember all the lies, frauds, and deceptions used to trick us into wars of conquest, to send our young people out to die in wars created out of thin air by and for the money-junkies. I think it is time that wee have a new rule in America; that those who want war are the first to the front lines. You are all splendidly brave with the lives of other peoples' children. Let's see the true measure of your courage and commitment to war.

Turkish tanks took up position on a hill overlooking the besieged Syrian border town of Kobane on Sept. 29 after several shells hit Turkish territory as militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fired on the town, a Reuters correspondent said.

At least 15 tanks were positioned, some with their guns pointed towards Syrian territory, near a Turkish military base just northwest of Kobane. Plumes of smoke rose up as shells hit both the eastern and western sides of the city.

More tanks and armoured vehicles moved towards the Syrian border after at least two shells hit Turkish territory on Sept. 29, without causing damage.

Webmaster's Commentary:

In other words, yet another false-flag attack to get the war really going.

The ISIL terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, control large parts of Syria’s northern territory. The group sent its members into neighboring Iraq in June and seized large parts of land there.

U.S.-led air strikes hit grain silos and other targets in Islamic State-controlled territory in northern and eastern Syria overnight, killing civilians and wounding militants, a group monitoring the war said on Monday.

The Obama administration has not ruled out establishing a no-fly zone over northeastern Syria to protect civilians from airstrikes by the Syrian government, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday.

Webmaster's Commentary:

So that whole ISIS thing has already been discarded and the war in Syria is a war against Syria!

The U.S.-led coalition widened its airstrikes against ISIS in Syria on Saturday as part of "near continuous" raids against the jihadists.

The targets were said to include ISIS fighters around the mainly Kurdish town of Ain al-Arab where a jihadist advance has sent 160,000 refugees streaming into nearby Turkey.

The coalition also hit ISIS in the central province of Homs for the first time as well as in the town of Minbej, near the western limit of the group's control, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The expanded operations in Syria by Washington and its Arab allies came after three more European governments deployed fighter jets for strikes against ISIS in Iraq, freeing up U.S. air power.

In an emotional appeal to world leaders meeting in New York, Lebanon's prime minister on Friday said his country is facing a "fierce terrorist onslaught" and a national disaster created by more than a million Syrian refugees flooding the tiny nation.

Turkish army could be used to help set up a secure zone in Syria, if there was an international agreement to establish such a haven for refugees fleeing ISIS militants, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said in comments published on Saturday.

Up to 40 jihadist US citizens who have fought alongside terrorist group ISIS are now back on U.S. soil, possibly to strike the vulnerable electric and subway substations. According to Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) and a senior Obama administration official, more than 100 American citizens left the country to join ISIS or the al-Nursa Front to fight in Syria, but now it’s believed that 40 American terrorists have leaked back into the U.S., lurking in the shadows.

You're going to love this one. The first part of the video shows the eeeeeevil ISIS surrounding an old artillery piece, which isn't actually firing. Then at about 1:12, we cut to a scene where the artillery piece is standing alone. Everyone has moved well away from the artillery, which is quite a coincidence (and if you believe that one I have some of Saddam's nuclear weapons to sell you) because that is the moment the bomb hits!

An Iraqi envoy conveyed a U.S. message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last week that airstrikes against Islamic State extremists in Syria wouldn’t be directed against his regime, Iraq’s prime minister said.

According CNN Middle East correspondent Arwa Damon (photo, above), residents from the town of Raqqa, in northeastern Syria had “mixed reactions to US strikes”. The reason given was a real shocker:

Damon revealed on air early Wednesday that ISIL terrorists who were held up in the town may have been tipped off weeks in advance to the US airstrikes on Tuesday. According to Damon:

“15-20 days before the airstrikes, (ISIL) buildings were evacuated, and fighters then mixed in with the local population”.

Maybe Damon let the truth slip out by accident, or maybe she was trying to do what US journalists so often are not allowed to do by challenging Washington’s prefabricated narrative. Regardless, CNN’s chief war enthusiast Wolf Blitzer did not feel the need to pursue the point.

The covert US-led war on Syria, under the guise of fighting terrorism, is now well underway despite its flagrant criminality and fraudulence. Thanks to the Western and Arab-sponsored terror networks, as well as Zionist-controlled Western media, the military aggression is being conducted with a grotesque image of humanitarianism and lawfulness.

David Cameron has warned world leaders at the United Nations that the Islamic State, or Isis, harbours “murderous plans to expand its borders well beyond Iraq and Syria… and to carry out terrorist atrocities right across the world” and pledge concerted action by Britain, including air strikes, to thwart it.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Not mentioned in this article is that Cameron basically said that anyone who questions the official story of 9-11 or 7-7, or claims Muslims are being persecuted, is supporting the terrorists. This is nonsense. I do not support the terrorists. I have never worked for Mossad!!!!!

On September 22, the air campaign against ISIS expanded into Syria in a coordinated attack that included 47 Tomahawk missiles and nearly 50 coalition aircraft. This action had been all but inevitable since the commencement of overflight reconnaissance in Syria on August 26. Significantly, these strikes also included targets of the Khorasan Group, an al-Qaeda affiliate unrelated to ISIS. Also significantly, five Arab militaries—Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Qatar—participated in the operation. At this stage, there are three important questions to address: the targeting of the strikes, the implications of this action, and potential challenges that might await the operation moving forward.

On Monday night in Syria, U.S. planes began bombing ISIS targets, in addition to a couple of al Qaeda affiliates (they just keep popping up, don't they?).

This action is only the most visible and recent part of what has become a comprehensive strategic disaster for the United States. Despite not being able to articulate any sort of logical strategy, let alone any actually compelling interest for what we're doing, we're stumbling into yet another boneheaded, open-ended conflict in the Middle East.

$22-30.000 per hour fly.
$20.000 per rocket dropped
Successful flight and dropped missiles cost between $84.000 and 142.000
$ 500 billion plan on isis said that 500 billion devided to the members of isis is $30 million each.

Yesterday's U.S.-led airstrikes on Syria, targeting an al-Qaida command center in Idlib, resulted in the death of at least 11 civilians, according to the Center for Documentation of Violation in Syria (VDC).

Bahraini fighter jets have joined US-led air strikes in Syria to prevent extremist fighters from expanding throughout the region.

The US operation included the Royal Bahrain Air Force (RBAF) and military forces from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and Jordan, which was part of an international action plan to stamp out the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organisation, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I try to stay as logically focused as humanly possible, when I am posting.

But there is one thing I want to share with our readers, because I am pretty sure that some of you will have a resonance with this.

Monday, when we got the news here on Oahu that President Obama had begun a a series of air strikes against Syria, I felt as though he had knocked on our door; I had graciously let him in; and then he proceeded to knock this 65 year old gal to the floor with a sucker punch to my gut.

That is how completely betrayed I feel by this government right now.

And for God's sake, look at the company the US government is keeping in this Administration's "Coalition of the (allegedly) Willing, 2014"!!!

Saudi Arabia, which carries out beheadings frequently, and Bahrain are two of the worst human rights abusers on this planet, and probably on a couple of others as well. (do we call that Species rights abuse on other planets?!?)

So THESE are our allies, chosen in order to take out Bashar Al Assad, who has done absolutely NOTHING to the United States?!?

President Obama, there is nothing that can take the moral stench out of this decision you have made, nothing whatsoever.

The country I used to believe I lived in exists no more; that is one hell of a hard reality to get my head around, but it is the absolute, stone cold truth.

Since the United States is already conducting airstrikes over Syria to root out and kill Islamic State terrorists, the military ought to just go ahead and bomb President Bashar Assad — that’s the theory coming from the Syrian National Coalition camp anyway.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Assad is the real target and has been all along. ISIS is just the manufactured excuse.

As Western-backed terrorists drive allegedly tens of thousands of refugees into Turkish territory, and amid what is being called a "sustainable, persistent campaign" of air assaults, missile strikes, and other assorted attacks on Syrian territory, the West is preparing to dust off plans to establish a "buffer zone" in northern Syria protected by NATO troops - particularly from Turkey.

Hurriyet Daily News in its article, "Turkey’s top soldier inspects troops on Syrian border as gov't signals joining anti-ISIL bid, " indicated Turkey was preparing to join the unilateral, illegal strikes on Syria led by the US and backed by several Persian Gulf autocracies. Hurriyet reported:

Turkey’s land forces commander inspected troops along the Syrian border on Sept. 24, as the Turkish government signaled a policy change in actively joining the international coalition led by the United States against the jihadist threat in Iraq and Syria.

Webmaster's Commentary:

The Turkish Parliament is set to introduce legislation providing troops for the US-backed anti ISL forces next week.

Were I a betting person, I would be willing to bet that this legislation will be passed.

It appears that the US is preparing for an occupation of Syria, and Al-Assad's ouster.

According to a report by Al-Jazeera, which is aligned with Qatar, a vehement supporter of the U.S. military campaign against ISIS, missiles targeting the town of Kafr Diryan destroyed two residential areas, killing 27 people, most of whom were civilians.

“The locals say that this is the first time that they were attacked by missiles since the outbreak of Syrian revolution. The paradox, they say, is they were bombed not by the Syrian regime, but by an international coalition which killed and wounded many of them under the pretext of fighting terrorism,” states the report.

One of the locals interviewed for the report asserted that no ISIS militants were even active in the area.

And, not surprising, it is once again Assad whose fate was the bargaining chip to get the Saudis on the US' side, because in order to launch the incursion into Syrian sovereign territory "took months of behind-the-scenes work by the U.S. and Arab leaders, who agreed on the need to cooperate against Islamic State, but not how or when. The process gave the Saudis leverage to extract a fresh U.S. commitment to beef up training for rebels fighting Mr. Assad, whose demise the Saudis still see as a top priority."

In other words, John Kerry came, saw and promised everything he could, up to and including the missing piece of the puzzle - Syria itself on a silver platter - in order to prevent another diplomatic humiliation.

Webmaster's Commentary:

For me, the wild card in this equation is, how far will Russia allow the regime in Damascus to fall before they feel they feel compelled to act?!?

And what, precisely, is Putin prepared to do?

Wish I had a "Vulcan mind-meld" capability - at a distance - on this.

The way Obama has gone in with bomb strikes in Iraq and Syria, it does not appear that there is any way he can, or will, de-escalate any time soon.

Here is the transcript of Gen. Clark’s account.
CLARK: About 10 days after 9/11, I went to the Pentagon, and I saw [Defense] Secretary [Donald] Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary [Paul] Wolfowitz. I went downstairs to say hello to some of the people on the joint staff that used to work for me.

One of the generals called me in and said, “Sir, you gotta come in and talk to me.” I said, “Sir, you’re too busy.” And he said, “No, no! We’ve made the decision — we’re going to war with Iraq!” This is on or about the 28th of September. I said, “We’re going to war with Iraq? Why!?” He said, “I don’t know!” He said, “I guess they don’t know what else to do.” So I said, “Did they find some information connecting Saddam to al Qaeda?” He said, “No, no, there’s nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq.” He said, “I guess its like we don’t know what to do about terrorists, but we’ve got a good military and we can take down governments.”

Webmaster's Commentary:

OK , folks; if it wasn't clear to you that these invasions are part of a long-form plan before reading what General Clark had to say, I would like to hope that you do now.

There was a marvelous line in the second Sherlock Homes film, where the Moriarty character says that he wants to control the market on bullets and bandages for the coming war.

And this is no different than the military industrial corporations which are collectively SALIVATING over the next major military confrontation the US will be having, because the profitability of such a war for them will be extraordinarily high.

Wars are NEVER about our safety, security, and alleged "freedoms"; it is all about private corporate profit, and this is why our young men and women in uniform are going to die and get maimed for life in the horrendous military confrontation I see coming, which may well engulf the entire world.

The United States, assisted by a handful of Arab nations, conducted air strikes on Syria on 23rd September. The attacks mark a striking expansion in America’s military campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and have occurred without the consent of the Syrian government. A U.S. State Department official confirmed that the Syrian government was not asked for authorisation, saying: “We did not seek the regime’s permission, we didn’t coordinate our actions with the Syrian government, and Secretary [of State John] Kerry did not send a letter to the Syrian regime.” The U.S. airstrikes are therefore a clear violation of international law, as Damascus had earlier said that any direct action by the United States within Syria would constitute an act of war and a breach of its sovereignty.

There’s no eliminating the Islamic State without fixing Iraq and without removing Bashar Assad in Syria.

Webmaster's Commentary:

And there you have it. ISIS was just a manufactured excuse. The goal of these attacks, as has been the coal of three years of covert attempts at overthrow, is kicking Assad out of Syria and replacing him with a puppet regime.

Making the first major push to choke off financing for Islamic State, U.S. and allied Arab warplanes bombed a dozen small oil refineries in eastern Syria on Wednesday that U.S. officials said were part of a $2 million-a-day revenue stream for the Sunni Muslim extremist group.

A team led by a Norwegian major general arrived Thursday in Damascus to negotiate the possible deployment of U.N. monitors for any cease-fire between Syrian troops and rebel forces.

Ahmad Fawzi, a spokesman for peace envoy Kofi Annan, reported the arrival and said the U.N. is already asking members to contribute 200 to 250 soldiers to monitor a cease-fire that officials hope would start April 10.

Annan has asked the Norwegian major-general, Robert Mood, to begin discussing with the Syrian authorities “the eventual deployment of this U.N. supervision and monitoring mission,” Fawzi said.

Such a contingent would first have to be authorized by the 15-nation Security Council.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I frankly wouldn't hold my breath that magically, just because of a date on a calendar, that the "rebel forces" (read: hired mercs) will lay down their weapons, and sing "Kumbyah", along with Syrian forces.

My suspicion is that Annan pushed al-Assad for this deadline for cessation of hostilities because such a deadline is not achievable.

And what happens, then, on the 11th of April, if there has been no substantive cease-fire? And what world player will be willing, if not eager, to act, even without a UN mandate?

Were I a betting woman, I would not bet against some kind of "shadow NATO engagement" to bring about regime change, but the kind of involvement which couldn't quite be pinned directly on NATO by a very angered China and Russia, which would, reasonably, see such an action as an "end-run" against the UN, and done without any UN mandate whatever.

Al Jazeera has supplied Syrian rebels with satellite communication tools to ensure telephone and Internet connection, claims Ali Hashim, a former correspondent of the Qatar-funded channel. The equipment was smuggled from Lebanon, he told RT.

Helen Thomas’s recent request to purchase a table at the upcoming White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) annual dinner has been rejected.

In a comment on that story I said, “It’s hard to imagine anything more wrong than this.”

I base my opinion on the fact that the 91-year-old Thomas, a former WHCA president, is unique among American journalists, having covered 10 different presidential administrations in a career stretching back to Dwight Eisenhower.

It is because of Thomas as much as anyone else that women were first included at the WHCA dinner since, as the WHCA’s website mentions:

As I've said before, the Syrian situation is such a mess that I don't claim to have a solution. And I guess that limits how indignant I can get about solutions that other people are pushing, including those that my government is pursuing. But could we at least be honest about we're doing? The U.S., by giving the rebels this communications equipment, is now officially helping Syrians kill other Syrians. That's a big step.

There was one other big development at the "Friends of Syria" conference that the Times story was about: Some Arab states are creating a $100 million fund to pay rebel soldiers. Put these two developments together and this looks a lot like the first few steps toward a thoroughgoing intervention by a coalition involving the U.S., Arab states, and others.

A new UN Security Council resolution reiterating their approval of the Kofi Annan ceasefire deal in Syria and urging both sides to stop fighting by April 10 has been stalled on specific wording, with the US seemingly trying to work the resolution into some sort of mandate.

US Ambassador Susan Rice insisted that the United Nations has to act “urgently and seriously” against Syria once the April 10 deadline the Annan government agreed upon passes, assuming there is no halt to operations.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Memo to US Ambassador Susan Rice to the UN: How do you get your Russian and Chinese counterparts on board with the wording of such a resolution?

And if you cannot get them on board with this UN Syrian resolution, Madam Ambassador, what then?!?!?Are we to expect NATO to attack and invade on the 11th?!?

And who the heck gave the US government the moral authority to speak for the world on this?!?

The so-called “Friends of Syria” conference convened in Istanbul last Sunday marks a major escalation in fomenting civil war and preparing for direct imperialist intervention. What is envisioned and is being actively prepared is a bloodletting that will eclipse the death toll thus far in the Syrian conflict and a war that has the potential of triggering a global conflict threatening millions.

Led by Washington and its principal NATO allies—Britain, France and Germany—together with Saudi Arabia and the rest of the reactionary Persian Gulf oil monarchies and Turkey, the conference produced two substantive developments.